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Italian Christmas Cookies are soft, buttery, fluffy, and melt in your mouth delicious. Flavored with a hint of vanilla and a sweet glaze, these tasty treats are a perfect holiday treat. Take them to your next cookie exchange, party, or just for a fun occasion!
These will be perfect on a plate, along with some Christmas Gooey Butter Cookies, Christmas Crack, and Snow Kiss Cookies for a festive dessert platter. Everyone will love these, and you’ll love how easy they are to make!
Easy Italian Christmas Cookies
These Italian cookies are often made with anise, which is a licorice flavor. Not everyone loves that flavor, so I swapped it out for vanilla and topped it with an amazing almond glaze. They are fluffy, decadent, and very festive. They are a great cookie for kids to help with.
This recipe makes quite a big batch, which is perfect for gift-giving and having enough to eat, too. Plate them with these classic Linzer Cookies, these Peppermint Meltaways, or these Eggnog Cookies, and you will have the most delicious cookie plate that is perfect for Christmas!
Ingredients in Italian Christmas Cookies
Ricotta cheese is the secret ingredient for moist and tender cookies. Check out all of the ingredients at the bottom of the post for all of the exact measurements!
Cookies
- Butter: Soften the butter, but don’t melt it.
- Granulated Sugar: Gives the cookies the right amount of sugary sweetness.
- Eggs: The eggs bind all of the ingredients together.
- Extracts: Use both Vanilla extract and Almond extract for that extra-warm sweetness.
- Ricotta cheese: Ricotta cheese is the secret ingredient that makes these cookies nice and soft.
- Flour: I used all-purpose flour in this recipe.
- Baking Soda and Baking Powder: These leavening agents help make the cookies soft and fluffy.
- Salt: To enhance all the flavors.
Almond Glaze
- Powdered Sugar: This is the base of the glaze
- Milk: Add this slowly so you don’t make the glaze too runny.
- Almond Extract: This gives the Italian Christmas cookies an almond taste.
- Sprinkles: I use red and green for Christmas but feel free to change those up and serve these all year round.
How to Make Italian Christmas Cookies
These cookies are simple to make, and I love adding on different sprinkles. In fact, change up the sprinkles with different colors, and you can use them all year long!
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit and line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Add the butter and sugar to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and beat on medium-high until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
- Add the eggs, vanilla, and ricotta and mix until fully incorporated.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt before slowly adding to the sugar mixture until all the flour is fully incorporated.
- Scoop teaspoons of dough and roll them into uniform balls before placing them on the prepared baking sheets, leaving 2-inches between them.
- Bake for 9-11 minutes before removing from the oven. Let the cookies cool on the pan for 2-3 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack to finish cooling.
Almond Glaze
- In a small bowl, whisk the powdered sugar, milk, and almond extract together until smooth.
- Dip the tops of the cookies in the glaze and immediately sprinkle with Christmas sprinkles. Set the cookies aside until the glaze has dried before serving.
Tips and Variations
These Italian Christmas cookies are sure to please any crowd. Here are some tips so yours turn out perfectly every time.
- Add the milk to the glaze slowly: Add a tablespoon of milk one at a time to get the desired consistency instead of all at once. You can make it thick or thin, depending on what you like.
- Sprinkles: Change the color of the sprinkles for the holiday or occasion. You could use black and orange for Halloween or pink or blue for a baby shower. You can serve these cookies any time of the year despite their title!
- Flavoring: These are very flexible cookies. Change out the vanilla extract for peppermint, almond, coconut, or any other flavoring, and add a complimentary flavoring in the icing, orange, cocoa, etc.
- Don’t overbake: These shouldn’t be brown on top. If you overbake them, they will turn out to be dry.
- How to glaze the cookies: If you glaze these Italian Christmas cookies while they are slightly warm, the glaze can seep into the cookie! Always decorate with your sprinkles right after you glaze so that they’ll stick.
- Scoop: If you have one, use a cookie scoop so they are the same size; they’ll cook easier that way.
Storing Leftovers
These Italian Christmas cookies are so delicious you won’t be able to stop at one! This recipe makes a lot, so this is how you can store leftovers:
- At Room Temperature: Let the cookies set for up to 24 hours before transferring to an airtight container. Letting them set up will keep the glaze from becoming wet and slimy. They will last for about 5-7 days when stored at room temperature.
- In the Freezer: Once the cookies are cooled and before you add the glaze, place them in an airtight container or ziplock bag (label it with the date), and they will last for about 2 months. Glaze the frozen cookies after they are thawed.
More Festive Christmas Cookies
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Italian Christmas Cookies
Ingredients
Cookies
- 1 cup unsalted butter softened
- 2 cups granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- ¼ teaspoon almond extract
- 1 cup whole milk ricotta drained for about an hour
- 4 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
Almond Glaze
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 2-4 tablespoons milk
- ½ teaspoon almond extract
- Christmas sprinkles for topping
Instructions
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit and line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Add the butter and sugar to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and beat on medium-high until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
- Add the eggs, vanilla, and ricotta and mix until fully incorporated.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt before slowly adding to the sugar mixture until all the flour is fully incorporated.
- Scoop teaspoons of dough and roll them into uniform balls before placing them on the prepared baking sheets, leaving 2-inches between them.
- Bake for 9-11 minutes before removing from the oven. Let the cookies cool on the pan for 2-3 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack to finish cooling.
Almond Glaze
- In a small bowl, whisk the powdered sugar, milk, and almond extract together until smooth.
- Dip the tops of the cookies in the glaze and immediately sprinkle with Christmas sprinkles. Set the cookies aside until the glaze has dried before serving.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
These cookies look so delicious, I would love to make them but I do not have a Kitchen Aid mixer with a paddle . Can these cookies be made by hand nor with a standard hand mixer? Thank you so much , Linda
Hi Linda! Yes, these Italian Christmas cookies can definitely be made with a hand mixer!
Is it possible to substitute cream cheese instead of ricotta
I haven’t tried that before, but it could work. Cottage cheese is also a great substitute for ricotta.
These comments were very helpful! Yes, the batter is sticky, which I was glad to read since I thought I did something wrong. I refrigerated it and that helped. I was able to roll them into balls albeit lumpy ones! I prefer to have them a little more done than the recipe calls for. They also flattened out, but still tasted good! Thank you!
I’m struggling here to the “1 15 ounce” … how much is that’s in grams? I was trying to convert it with google but the amount just doesn’t fit right to me… 🙁
Hi! 15 ounces of ricotta cheese is about 425 grams. Let me know how they turn out for you!
I wanted to make this recipe because the ricotta intrigued me. I love Anise, but most family doesn’t. I wanted an alternative.
The batter is sticky! However, I was able to roll it. I felt it needed a minimum 13+ minutes to bake. I made a hella more than 24 cookies! Lol. Which is cool. Over all not bad!
Happy holidays, can I usxAlmond flour in place of regular flour.
Yes! That should work fine. Let me know how they turn out!
What kind of butter should be used? Salted or unsalted
I used unsalted butter!
After baking, do they need to be stored inside refrigerator?
You can store them at room temperature in an airtight container!
Can I use self rising flour? Imma have to make a shopping trip if not… dang it.
Ok I’m answering my own question… they turned out fine but they taste very biscuit like so probably not an OK substitute or the recipe is supposed to be bland until frosted?
As stated before, this recipe makes well over 24 cookies. I got over five dozen out of it using my small cookie scoop. Also, the dough is much too sticky to roll into a ball. And yes, bake them for at least 12 minutes unless you want raw cookies.
These are wonderful – even frozen!
I made this recipe as well. I substituted vanilla rum for vanilla extract because silly me forgot to buy some and I realized this after the batter was mostly made. I also left my cookies in for 12 minutes just so they were golden brown on the bottom as after 10 minutes they still looked raw and wet in the middle. Dough was too sticky to form into balls so I used my cookie scoop instead. I expected them to come out as balls but they flatten out as they cooked and became flatter as they cooled. Either way they were still good.
OK I followed the recipe perfectly. first of all it says it makes 24 cookies but I still had 1/3 bowl of batter left after 2 dozen were baked – also the recipe says 8-10 minutes at 350 degrees. I baked the first dozen at exactly 10 minutes and they were still wet batter in the middle, uncooked. So I increased the time at 2 minute intervals, finally I arrived at 16 minutes being just right as a firm cookie, not brown but firm. It made 30 cookies and they are large – I used a teaspoon cookie scoop to do my balls. Other than that timing of the baking time, the cookies are very good and large – I made my glaze but it did not take 2-4 tablespoons of milk to just one cup of powdered sugar, that was real runny and just like water, I thickened it up a bit to look like the picture. I would give it 5 stars but needed to bring this to attention about the baking time.
These cookies are delicious! However, the batter was very sticky and would not roll into a ball. I had to add more flour.
Made these cookies, the biggest mess ever! Won’t be making them again. They were flat as a flap jack…disappointed to say the least. Can’t roll them into ball because they cling to your hand like glue.
Hi, is there anything I can substitute for the almond extract?
You can use vanilla or mint!
or lemon
I’m so excited you shared these! I have the family recipe in an old cookbook but it’s helpful to have an online copy. These are a family staple not just at Christmas but all holidays. We color our icing (instead of sprinkles) to reflect the Italian flag :D.